Loyalty programs have become a standard tool for attracting and maintaining repeat customers. Just about every industry and vertical market offers one -- retailers, financial institutions, airlines, hotels and more. The question lies in whether these programs really manage to build long-term, loyal relationships with customers or instead end up disappointing them.

Everyone knows the grocery store analogy in understanding merchandising; milk and core staples in the back and impulsive "extras" loaded at the front and just in reach. Grocers know they can up their line-item-value by moving product around in order to influence the consumer. However, what may be somewhat impervious to the consumer is the cost and "value" to each and every square inch of retail space. Your Web form should be constructed in a similar manner.

Social media is here to stay, and the smart e-marketer is already deeply involved, logically seeing social media sites as an opportunity for acquisition and monetization. But e-marketers can often be frustrated by the very nature of these sites, which tends to rely on community input rather than marketers' sales techniques. The very nature of social media sites-that same community-is the real strength they offer to e-marketers: a special sort of customer relationship marketing.

In the world of technology sales, there are many hurdles one has to overcome to be successful. In landing the big deal, any elephant hunter will undoubtedly tell you that many times along the way, you will be faced by the wild beast known as procurement. You have gotten through the door, you have pitched to the product people, bowed to the gods of IT and now you are faced with the nameless, faceless, ruthless, heartless procurement person, a person who wakes up every day shrouded in a cloud of indifference to everything and anything with the exception of price. ...